nery, or to communicate the Secret to any person
whatsoever, until it is proved that the Invention is made use of by any
one without restriction of Patent, or other particular agreement on the
part of Mr. Koenig, under the penalty of Six Thousand Pounds.

"(Signed) T. Bensley,
"Friederich Konig.
"Witness--J. Hunneman."

Koenig now proceeded to put his idea in execution. He prepared his
plans of the new printing machine. It seems, however, that the
progress made by him was very slow. Indeed, three years passed before
a working model could be got ready, to show his idea in actual
practice. In the meantime, Mr. Walter of The Times had been seen by
Bensley, and consulted on the subject of the invention. On the 9th of
August, 1809, more than two years after the date of the above
agreement, Bensley writes to Koenig: "I made a point of calling upon
Mr. Walter yesterday, who, I am sorry to say, declines our proposition
altogether, having (as he says) so many engagements as to prevent him
entering into more."

It may be mentioned that Koenig's original plan was confined to an
improved press, in which the operation of laying the ink on the types
was to be performed by an apparatus connected with the motions of the
coffin, in such a manner as that one hand could be saved. As little
could be gained in expedition by this plan, the idea soon suggested
itself of moving the press by machinery, or to reduce the several
operations to one rotary motion, to which the first mover might be
applied. Whilst Koenig was in the throes of his invention, he was
joined by his friend Andrew F. Bauer, a native of Stuttgart, who
possessed considerable mechanical power, in which the inventor himself
was probably somewhat deficient. At all events, these two together
proceeded to work out the idea, and to construct the first actual
working printing machine.

A patent was taken out, dated the 29th of March, 1810, which describes
the details of the invention. The arrangement was somewhat similar to
that known as the platen machine; the printing being produced by two
flat plates, as in the common hand-press. It also embodied an
ingenious arrangement for inking the type. Instead of the
old-fashioned inking balls, which were beaten on the type by hand
labour, several cylinders covered with felt and leather were used, and
formed part of the machine itself. Two of the cylinders revolved in
opposite directions, so as to spread the ink, whi